In many ways, politics is a simple game: Get away with as much as possible by encouraging as many people as possible to share your alternate and fictional reality.

Most of the time, this involves presenting your opponent as the true cause of all that is bad while you remain the sole representative of all that is good. But when no opponent exists, and the underlying behavior you’re trying to hide is particularly disgusting , one solution remains: Use yourself as the distraction.

This week, the nation commemorated the 22nd anniversary of the deadliest terrorist attacks on American soil, mourning the 2,977 innocent victims of Islamic terrorism on 9/11, (let alone the hundreds of firefighters, paramedics, police officers, and civilians who have died as a result of the attack’s aftermath).

Without a doubt, 9/11 is one of the most solemn dates in the calendar, which explains the understandable outrage sparked by President Joe Biden when he chose to send ( a smiling ) Vice President Kamala Harris to the 9/11 memorial event in New York City. Biden, meanwhile, commemorated the attacks from a location as far away as possible, addressing the nation from a military base in Anchorage, Alaska, during what can only be described as a layover on his way back from Vietnam.

And, of course, Biden couldn’t resist adding a healthy pinch of outright fantasy to his accounts of that horrific day in history.

“Ground zero in New York — I remember standing there the next day and looking at the building. I felt like I was looking through the gates of hell,” Biden claimed despite admitting in his own autobiography that he was in Washington on Sept. 12, 2001.

But while people were united in their frustration and anger in response to Biden’s lies and his decision to snub the memorial ceremony, they were distracted from the true reality of the president’s contemptible actions: rewarding the world’s largest funder of terrorism.

Yes, the Biden administration marked the 22nd anniversary of the 9/11 attacks by handing over a $6 billion ransom payment to Iran , along with the release of five Iranian citizens (including smugglers who were working to support Iran’s ballistic missile and nuclear program), in exchange for five detained Americans.

Now, according to the Biden administration, the $6 billion in now-unfrozen assets will be used for humanitarian projects — a claim that is as believable as Biden’s account of Sept. 12, 2001. If you believe that, I have a bridge in Tehran to sell you.

Of course, this money will eventually (if not immediately) be used to further the ideological objectives of Iran, which will include the destruction of Israel and then the United States.

Not only is Biden following the lead of his predecessor, Barack Obama, and rewarding terrorists for the capture of American citizens, but he is also continuing to make the world a more dangerous place for Americans.

In other words, he’s failing in his single duty as president of the U.S.

Of course, he wants you distracted by the location of his Sept. 11 address. Because while we’re busy talking about Alaska, we’re not talking about the gun Iran is pointing toward our head — a gun Biden is happily loading.

Ian Haworth is a columnist, speaker, and host of Off Limits . You can follow him on X at @ighaworth . You can also find him on Substack .